Confronted with these profound shifts, the tendency of many organizations is to go on the defensive. Overwhelmed by the shifting tides–and afraid to take risks in a fast-moving and highly uncertain environment–they circle the wagons to fight the changes or develop plans to cope with them. But survival…

The bricks and mortar retail experience is about people and finally it seems that the focus has shifted back to people at Tesco. After a number of years just focusing on profit rather than sustainability the balance is shiftingTesco’s re-focus on its “Every Little Helps” strapline is an attempt to restore trust by showing how the customer is back at the heart of the business.

Marketers are making a strong pivot to growth and focusing on driving value for businesses, according to the survey, “Marketing Disruption II,” conducted by the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) in conjunction with GfK, a global market research firm.

How persuasive is this argument really? I love the figure of exactly 24%. It shows Google have done their behavioural economics homework. Brands’ cost-per-reach is optimised when 24 per cent of a TV advertising budget is allocated to YouTube, said Eileen Naughton, Google’s managing director of UK and Ireland operations, at the Brandcast event last night (13 October).

Retailers in the UK are under pressure and this trend seems to be spreading to the US. Though some targeted retailers like Aldi are experiencing growth, along with convenience stores, many undifferentiated groups are struggling. Tesco in the UK is one example. e-commerce has certainly eaten into their profits, along with the changing patterns of shoppers who are not willing to spend as much time shopping. Tesco has taken the tack of reducing their SKU’s, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more drastic cost cutting methods like closing stores being employed.

Is the US supermarket industry overbuilt? This is a big question and a tough conversation. Key players in the UK supermarket sector are already confronting it, and many markets in the US will soon follow if they are not already there. Figuring out how to respond requires systematic rethinking of the entire organization’s function, from the head office down to the number of SKUs stocked in any given category. To start the conversation, I reached out to Will Treasure, Director, Operations for The Javelin Group, a part of Accenture.

“There’s no longer a delineation between how our guests live life and how they shop; they just shop whenever they have time. They want to flow seamlessly across all of our channels … and we’ve got to make that happen by having the right underlying architecture.”

Consumer trust in most forms of advertising and communication – including TV ads, company websites and editorial content – has fallen in the past two years, according to the latest research from Nielsen.

Everyone tries to get onto this bandwagon, but not everyone succeeds. Galbreath in his book, Marketing with Meaning wrote about this some years ago, so it’s not new but despite the attempts by various organisations, only a few have gone beyond a pretentious show. The catch about adding value in this way is that you actually have to believe what you are doing at all levels in the organisation

Cut-throat promotions have devalued FMCG brands across Europe, but brands that have purpose and “stand for something” can inject value into a business, according to Jan Zijderveld, president Europe Unilever.